Contractor Deaths Exceed Military

For the first time contractor deaths have exceeded military deaths in Iraq/Afghanistan: Review Article Here from ProPublica.com. 

Sobering news for those considering a job in the warzones.  It's a poignant reminder of the danger that you could face working alongside the military.  The danger is all too real. 

I was in Afghanistan at a major base south of Kabul sometime last year when we were attacked full force by Taliban/insurgents.  There were RPG's, suicide bombers, small arms fire, etc that went on for several hours.  This was a major base with significant armament, air support and significant numbers (more than 5k) of troops.  There were helicopter gunships overhead, rockets being fired, heavy machine gun fire going on for hours.  I'm saying this because the civilians on the base continued to operate as if nothing was going on.  I was quite amazed myself as there were hundreds of civilians milling around attempting to get to their 'regular jobs' with little regard for the danger going on around them.  Quite literally they were less than 50 feet from where RPG's were exploding and they were acting as if nothing was occurring. 

I think a lot of that had to do with them being in the warzone for so long and being exposed to this to such an extent as to be immune to the commotion, but I would say this.. myself and several former marines were hunkered down in a bunker with body armour on.  No sense dying for being stupid.

The danger is all too real there.  Prepare yourself for this.  Understand it, face it and then when you are there if something does go down, don't be macho.. if you hear a loud bang and aren't sure what it is.. when in doubt hit the deck.  Better to be laughed at for overreacting than to be dead.  By these statistics it does happen.

And here we go again...

Well, it's been about 6 months since I've put the boots and backpack on, but now I'm preparing for a trip of my own into the wilds of Afghanistan.  This time I will be going as a civilian non-DOD contractor which will be interesting.  My previous exploits in both Afghanistan and Iraq were as DOD-contractor.

Fortunately this visit will be relatively short, about 40 days or so with travel in / around the Kabul area.  It will be interesting to experience different parts of Kabul that I haven't travelled before.  As I prepare to travel I do the same things I've done in the past which is getting my shots updated, getting my power of attorney and will squared away and securing all of my travel arrangements from point to point.  We'll be flying straight civilian in on Safi which puts us on the civilian side of Kabul International.  Fortunately we have a good / efficient security team in country to help gather us up and get us to where we need to go.

Advice I could offer to those that are also getting ready to travel, is to review my blog here and some of the other sites available that have credible information on them from those experienced in warzone contracting.  There are a few sites to avoid as they simply are full of opinion and garbage from folks that have spent very limited time doing contracting outside of Logcap and have agenda's to harm some of the larger contractors (KBR, Fluor, etc).  You'll know them when you see them by the slant of their postings and rantings of their commentators.